This type of "news" always breaks out when there is an ongoing event.
Otherwise, no news or reserved to be broken out :)))
"tuna" <tuna2@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:e7efe698-ff29-48dc-ade5-32b61c09f143@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Former Tibetan Protester Details Torture in Jail
> 2007.04.20
>
> KATHMANDU--A Tibetan protester who served 13 years in Lhasa's notorious
> Drapchi prison has described how he was tortured by Chinese prison
> guards in an interview with RFA's Tibetan service.
>
> We were handcuffed, then they would beat us with a rubber tube
> filled with sand... On average we are continuously detained in
> solitude for about 28 days to a month at a time.
>
> Sonam Dorje
>
> "I was detained in Drapchi for 12 years," Sonam Dorje said. "In April
> 2005, we were moved from there to Chushul. At that time there were
> about 100 Tibetan political prisoners. Three soldiers for each
> prisoner escorted us to the new prison in the middle of the night."
>
> Dorje, 38, who managed to escape to Nepal en route to the exiled home
> of the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, said the use of torture and solitary
> confinement was commonplace in the prison.
>
> "We were handcuffed, then they would beat us with a rubber tube filled
> with sand," he recalled. "On average we are continuously detained in
> solitude for about 28 days to a month at a time."
> Prisoners' health problems
>
> He said the health of most of the prisoners deteriorated quickly as a
> direct result of the torture sessions and poor diet.
>
> "There was no Tibetan prisoner who did not suffer from kidney
> disease," Dorje said. "On a regular basis we were forced to sit on
> cold concrete floors. So the prisoners were weak and sickly."
>
> Dorje served a 13-year jail term from June 30, 1992 to June 30, 2005
> after taking part in an April 1992 demonstration against Chinese rule
> in the Himalayan region.
>
> "[When we protested in 1992] it was during a big meeting when we took
> Tibetan flags and shouted that Tibet is an independent country and
> that the Chinese should leave."
>
> "At that time we were immediately detained by local county police.
> During detention we were severely beaten and tortured," he added.
>
> He said the main reasons for the protests were the imposition of
> China's one-child policy on Tibetans, severe har****ps faced by local
> Tibetan farmers due to Chinese policies, severe shortage of jobs under
> the pressure influx of Han Chinese into the region, and implementation
> of patriotic reeducation campaigns in the region's monasteries.
> Electric batons used
>
> He said one of the five people convicted alongside him, Sonam Rinchen,
> died in Drapchi under torture.
>
> "When they conducted interrogations, the prisoners would be summoned
> to the interrogation center. When they didn't get the answer that they
> wanted to hear, they tortured us again with a severe beating."
>
> "Even after the interrogations we would be taken back to our cells
> where we were tortured once more. They would regularly tie our hands
> and legs apart and then they would hit us with an electric baton. Most
> of time they hit us with iron tongs," he recalled.
>
> "After all this physical torture and mental pain, we could not walk."
>
> "The conditions in Chinese prisons in Tibet are deplorable," he said,
> adding that the torture sessions worsened following his transfer to
> Chushul prison. "All the food served in jail lacked nutrition. All the
> vegetables were just boiled in water and served.
>
> Sonam Dorje was originally from Gyama town****p in Meldrogunkar (Mozhu
> gongka in Chinese) county, Lhasa prefecture. All five men were from
> Gyama town****p in Medrogonkar. They protested during a local meeting
> organized by the Chinese authorities.
>
> The five were: Sonam Dorje; Thupten Ye****, who is still in Chushul
> prison; Lhundup, who is also still in Chushul prison; Kunchok Lodoe,
> released at an unknown date; and Sonam Rinchen, who died on Sept. 17,
> 1999 in a military hospital near Sera Monastery in Lhasa.
>
> Dorje now plans to settle in Dharamsala, home of the Tibetan
> government-in-exile and the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama,
> since they fled the region following a failed uprising against Chinese
> rule in 1959.
>
> Original re****ting by RFA Tibetan staff in Asia. Translated by Karma
> Dorjee. Written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by
> Sarah Jackson-Han.
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